Button surprised not to make Q3

Jenson Button will start from eleventh position on the grid for his home race at Silverstone but the Englishman was surprised to struggle in qualifying.

The McLaren driver had felt that he had made an improvement from free practice but that this was not translated into faster lap times during qualifying for Sunday's British Grand Prix, the eighth round in the 2013 F1 World Championship.

When asked if a lack of confidence was a factor in his performance, as it had been in Canada, Button refuted that suggestion.

“Today a lack of confidence wasn't a factor,” Button told members of the media, including Crash.net. “I felt alright in the car and in the high speed corners we improved from FP3 to qualifying. In high speed I had good confidence. But in slow speed corners we are still weak - in terms of braking, traction - and also mid-corner with bumps. We are not quite there with the ride of the other cars.

“Here I had a better feeling from the car [than in Canada] and I'm surprised not to be in Q3 but sometimes you can feel like that in the car so we'll have to look at other areas for useful information [to improve].”

Button has not enjoyed the best of fortune in his home race, he has never finished on the podium, but he rejected any notion of it being an issue with the track. Instead Button commented on the unique atmosphere of racing at home.

“Obviously I want to win my home Grand Prix. To win at home would be very special, even walking down pitlane after qualifying in P11 and seeing the reaction of the crowd is quite emotional. It doesn't matter where you qualify, they're still there for you and so winning in front of my home crowd is something I'd love to do - but I don't feel under pressure to win here,” he added.

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The car is off the pace by some distance and Button is not the driver to get the best out of a poor car, he needs a car to suit him and Mclaren have failed to deliver that all season. I believe there might be a few surprises at Mclaren come end of season when they have failed to deliver a win or even a podium, it can't carry on like it is and it's about time they addressed the problem.